Extreme Happiness

We've had a rough week. The referral we had to let go was emotional. Then I read the Hunger Games because a ton of people recommended it as soon as they heard I like Twilight. I decided, since I needed a good relaxing read, I'd give it a try. My advice to you is don't read it. It's a terrible series and I am not even close to feeling relaxed now. More like disturbed. And we have been out of the basics for awhile now... like over a week. We miss milk terribly, beans and rice has been our main meal, and my random dinner concoctions are not cutting it anymore. There is only so much you can do with beans, rice, and noodles. We should have had our groceries a while back but the airport mixed things up and sent the schools food instead (hot breakfast ingredients for testing)... which means ours is still sitting at the airport in their fridge/freezer. Our bananas will be black and some of the other fruits and veggies that are damaged will be made into purees and added to our food anyway. That part is fine I just wish we weren't waiting. There are no planes today. And I am sick again but I am blaming it on stress this time.

I got an email this morning that immediately turned my frown upside down! It's a video of us getting a box of grain sweetened chocolate chips from Joe's sister, homemade deer jerky from my Dad, minced garlic from my Ma, random foods we haven't thought to try left for us by one of the village visitors, milk from our friends in town, and the fresh fruit my Aunt Donna sent us for Christmas! Ok it's not any of those things but watch it and you'll understand.

My Sister

This girl is Molly. She has blond hair, and a cute smile. Molly likes to be cute. Molly is a kind person and likes to chat. Whenever you talk to her you are sure to be greeted by a smile.

By: Gavin

Childhood joys

Source: facebook.com via Alice on Pinterest

Source: skinnyfit-thebestyou.tumblr.com via Alice on Pinterest

If it wasn't lava it was sharks! Who didn't do these things!?

Miniature Olympians

I am taking an apple tech college course (offered from the district so it was free! Woot Woot!). One of our projects was to make an iMovie... It's a bit dark because it was snowing and the green screen at the end is only there because it was required.

Me and Ms. M. took the preschoolers out on the new cross-country skis. The girls had a blast learning to ski and we had a blast watching them. Surprisingly there weren't many falls. These littles are going to be pros!

So what'd ya think? Have you made an iMovie before?

Aurora Borealis

Forecast: Auroral activity will be active. Weather permitting, active auroral displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to Anchorage and Juneau, and visible low on the horizon from King Salmon and Prince Rupert.

Forecaster Comments: Another solar event took place on the 13th. The effects from this event on the aurora could occur as early as 10 am GMT on the 15th in time for magnetic midnight in Alaska at 2am (AKDT) in the morning of the 15th. The best auroras will probably occur on the night of the 15/16. The effects of a large coronal hole will be seen in increased activity around the 17th

Information from above taken from this website.

It's moments like this that make me want to stay in Alaska.

Week in Fairbanks

Joe just posted on the adoption blog about our CRAZY week in Fairbanks for inservice. Head on over here to read. It was seriously the most exhausting week...like fall asleep at the computer while making an iMovie project exhausting. Now we are sick again. Surprise surprise! I intend to write about a few of the funnier things that happened while we were there, but I may never get around to it (sorry!). Here are some of my favorite photos from the week instead. Enjoy!

Pushing a cart over snow/ice and gravel is difficult. Therefore, there are carts littering every available space in the parking lots.

Waiting for Daddy during one of our quick guerilla shopping stops.

Fast food but we bring our own drinks

Fast food is a terrible idea when you don't touch the stuff for months at a time. Of course, we couldn't resist! We hit a McD too. We paid for it.

Tea Swap

Recently, I participated in a tea swap that Erin at My Beautiful Disaster put together. I received my tea package from Daisy at Pretty Green Tea right before we left for Fairbanks. It was such a great surprise to receive a package all the way from the UK in my little mail box! Daisy has an adorable blog with great photography and colorful outfits. I want Alaska to be warm enough now to wear pretty pastel dresses like this one! I adore that pink and blue together.

My package was quite beat up when it arrived (lots of packages come to our door like this... in fact all of our amazon boxes come ripped and open) but all was well with the tea bags and postcard inside the envelope. I am so excited to share these photos with you. Too bad you can only look at the tea... it was delicious.

It would appear someone in Anchorage taped up the bangs and bruises for me. The kids pulled the stamp off the package and played 'money' with it

The postcard was a wonderful surprise! The kids must have looked at the photo for hours.

Under the weather? Here are some cookies!

Everytime we get sick (which is all the time this school year), we try to make molasses cookies. Joe made this recipe. There was no way I was going to take the time to make a MOLASSES cookie recipe. Ew. I owe him an apology... these are sooo good! Molasses and ginger are so beneficial when you have the ick. Try it out!

Molasses Cookies

1 cup softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup maple sugar or date sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup molasses

3 cups whole wheat flour

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

a dash of nutmeg

a dash of cloves

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream together the butter, sugar, molasses and egg until blended. Mix the baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger into the molasses mixture. Now add the flour.
Using your hands roll the dough into walnut size balls. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto your cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on cookie sheet for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. (They never cool completely in our house